Project Photos: Bag From a Fat Quarter

July 06, 2017

My mom needed a new bag, and looking through my fabric stash I came across this beautiful fat quarter. It clearly had some specific purpose when I designed it, but honestly I can't remember what I originally planned. The fat quarter, with a printed area of 27 x 18 inches, consisted of a large area of Dark Coordinate Linen surrounded by a huge L shape of Contest Egyptian Owl Triangles.

My plan was to get the biggest bag that I could out of it without losing too much of it to unusable scraps. So I started by cutting out the black area and separating the L into 2 rectangles. If you look at the fq photo the cut line would be vertical in line with the left edge of the black area. These new rectangles were then laid over each other and trimmed to the same size. Basically I was trying to get them as large as possible here.

The black piece was then cut in half, and had a strip of the white, triangle fabric left over from trimming pieced into the middle to make the purse wider. Then the seams were top stitched to make everything lie flat. This is now the finished outer part of the bag.

So to make the lining, I took my two white rectangles and laid them against the outer part of my bag to find out how they matched up. They were wider one way and when matched up they still needed a bit of length to match the outer bit.

So I pieced together a strip of fabric to fill in the gap. Then sewed the two halves of the lining together with this new strip.

The outer and lining pieces then needed to be trimmed down to the exact same size before making the actual bag.

The actual construction on the bag is the same as the clutch tutorial that I created HERE. I did however add four layers of an old cotton fabric I had in my stash as an interfacing. The satin material by itself makes a thin floppy bag, and my mom needs something sturdy since she takes it with her everywhere.

Also just a tip: I used a strong metal zipper from a coat. Her last bag had the zipper wear out from the constant use. So if you're making a bag for someone that you know will use it that much, go the extra step and get a tough zip that can stand the abuse.